Missing Girl Found

Police Questioning Baby-sitter

Baby-sitter Questioned, May Face Abduction Charges

After a three-day search, police late Wednesday found a young West Side girl and the 19-year-old baby-sitter they believe abducted her.

Harrison Area detectives were questioning the baby-sitter, who was located on the Northwest Side, and said charges were possible by early Thursday. The 4-year-old girl, KrystiAna Lewis, did not appear to be injured but was taken to an area hospital for an examination.

The girl's mother, Kimmie Ware, 33, had last seen her daughter Sunday afternoon at a group home for women in the 3900 block of West Fillmore Street, where she lives with the baby-sitter and about a dozen other women.

The baby-sitter asked to take the girl for a walk while Ware napped, but when the mother awoke three hours later, the two had not returned.

Because she trusted the baby-sitter, who was well-liked at the home and baby-sat other children, Ware said she did not become frantic about the disappearance until Monday morning.

"I know she loves Krys and she is concerned about Krys' welfare," said Ware, who has been living with her daughter and 11-year-old son at the house for two months.

The baby-sitter had been living at the licensed facility for homeless women for about four months, said Sharon Grant, who runs the foundation that oversees the home. The baby-sitter got along well with other women at the group home and enjoyed caring for their children, she said.

Grant said the teenager may have stayed out all night with the child and panicked because residents are not supposed to leave the facility overnight.

The baby-sitter's grandfather said his granddaughter lived with him before moving to the group home with friends. He said she attended a private school in Mississippi in 1998 and planned to attend Prairie State Community College.

He said he knew little of the investigation and could not explain why his granddaughter would have taken the child.

The preschooler at Webster School is an outgoing child who loves to play dress-up and go to the park, her mother and friends said. Ware said that she had not argued with the baby-sitter, although two weeks ago she had asked the baby-sitter to stop telling the child to call the baby-sitter "momma."

"She is a nice person, which is what makes this so hard to understand," Ware said.